


A little bit boring isn't all that bad

by Fogfire



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 11:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16387100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fogfire/pseuds/Fogfire
Summary: Request: “Are you SURE I can’t punch him in the face?” “Yes.” “What if I just break his nose a little?” - Scotty x Reader





	A little bit boring isn't all that bad

Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott has worked with many people through the years. He’s had his fair share of boneheads, may it be teachers that wouldn’t believe in him or his ideas or subordinates who liked to doubt every single one of his decisions.

He’s worked with lots of people. Some of them he liked and some of them he even fancied and when he meets you for the first time, it’s not that special, at least he’d like to think of it that way.

You’re one of hundreds of newbies that have stepped out of the academy and onto their respective Ships. You’re smart, but that’s no surprise. You wouldn’t be on the Enterprise of all ships if it were different. And Scotty likes to make sure that he doesn’t have to work with more boneheads than necessary as long as he is the Chief Engineer.

What makes you stand out from the others, perhaps, is the smile edged on your face as you walk through the hallways. It’s bright and inviting and as you talk to one of your peers, he can see that it’s infective.

Maybe you like new beginnings.

Two months into their mission and three extremely annoying and nerve wracking training courses with the newbies later he realizes that your smile is a permanent feature.

He’s seen you jump out of your room in the middle of the gamma shift for a night training - you had smiled at him, hair disheveled, wearing your shirt the wrong way.

He’s seen you wobble down the catwalk with a hand pressed to a deep cut on your arm. The smile is there, shaky maybe, but still edged onto your lips.

And he can’t help to be intrigued.

But he’s the Chief Engineer and he tries not to pry into the lives of the ones that work under him. He’s never liked it when people tried to do that with him either.

It’s not until five months into their mission that he learns one important clue.

.

It’s time for a shore leave. Everyone is buzzing with excitement and as he walks down the catwalk for a last check-up, he runs into you.

The smile on your face has light up, something he hasn’t even thought to be possible. You’re practically beaming right now.

“Excited to go on a break?” He asks and your head bobs up and down as you nod.

“I’m meeting up with my significant other,” you ramble as you walk alongside him, “Haven’t seen him in months. Are you meeting family too? I’ve heard Dr. McCoy’s meeting some closer family members. Apparently he’s almost happy today.”

He listens to you talk and feels the weight of disappointment settle in his guts, surprising him with how much he must have hoped for a chance with you.

He forces himself to make small talk with you, ask you questions, smiles at you. He doesn’t want you to notice anything. It’s not your fault that he’s managed to develop a crush on you.

He can only hope that your partner knows how lucky they are to be the one who sets a smile like that on your lips.

.

He makes it his mission to not spend his break in misery.

He goes out with Keenser and drinks until he no longer cares about the brightness of your smile.

But the next day when he walks out of the little apartment they’ve given him during shore leave, he walks into you. And your smile is gone.

Your eyes are red, your face is pale and your lips are stretched into a wobbly line as if you might start to cry again.

And he knows that not even the shower he’s had has taken away all of last nights smell, that his hair looks like he’s been standing too close to an explosion and his shirt is wrinkled at best, but he can’t just let you walk away when you’re looking like this.

“Hey,” he puts a hand on your shoulder and faces the insecurity in your wide eyes, “Do you want to talk about it?”

You break out in tears instead and he holds you in the small, unlit hallway as you sob, unable to speak.

.

And later, when he’s managed to get you to eat and drink something - fruits and a cup of tea, even though he would have liked something stronger instead - you start to speak, unable to stop.

It all ends in a broken relationship, a broken promise, a broken trust. And tears. Lots and lots of tears.

He lets out a breath that sounds more like a heavy sigh.

“I’ll punch him in the face,” he declares and it doesn’t matter that the person of question is a highly trained security officer, he’s still pretty handy when he wants to be.

You laugh. It’s short and a little bit strained, but it’s the first step back to that bright smile on your face.

“You can’t punch him in the face.”

“But are you SURE I can’t punch him in the face?”

“Yes.”

“What if I just break his nose a little?”

You laugh again, louder this time and you stretch out one hand and rest it on his shoulder and he would be lying if this simple touch didn’t mean the world to him.

“No, Mr. Scott, you can’t even break his nose a little.”

“That is boring,” he tells you with a smile that you reciprocate.

And maybe it is boring, how you sit in his room in shared silence for a while, how you move on to spend your shore leave in that same shared sense of quiet comfiness, but he’s happy and as he sees that smile on your face grow and light up again, he knows you’re happy too.

How foolish of him to think that any other person but you yourself could put that smile on your face.

But as shore leave ends and everyone moves to get back on the ship, your paths cross more often than they used to.

And when your hand slips into his one day and he feels your smile on his lips, he thinks, that maybe, just maybe, a little bit boring isn’t all that bad.


End file.
